The incandescent bulb came to being in 1880 in the shop of Thomas Edison but it was only in 1910 that the tungsten filament lamp as we know today came into creation.

Since then for almost a century the incandescent bulb has sustained to be the most well-liked lighting device. While it is the most popular it isn’t by any means the best lighting answer. The development of engineering has meant that the bulb is at the moment completely out-of-date. In a classic case of survival of the fittest – the bulb has lost to its more power effective competitors– CFL’s and LED’s. While it is still more popular than the newer technologies, the incandescent bulb is on the way out.

(Editor)” Which is sad in my opinion. CFL’s are way MORE dangerous to our environment than incandescent will ever be.”

The move away from incandescent light bulbs

The incandescent bulb was banned in Cuba in 2005, and will discontinue to be sold in Argentina, Philippines, and Australia after 2010. Many nations have an transfer plan for bulbs and there are others that are starting to power the conversion from bulbs on the backs of carbon credits obtained by saving electrical energy. With the European Union and Canada planning to outlaw light bulbs after 2012 and many states in the US set to follow suit thereafter, the existence of the light bulb are numbered. New federal policy legislating a 25 % addition in efficiency in lighting devices could well be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back as most incandescent bulbs will not be able to equal the new stricter guidelines. Halogen bulbs will be able to meet the new guidelines but their success shall also be in question once stricter policy requiring lighting devices to produce at least sixty lumen’s per watt come to being. General Electric is reported to have seen the writing on the wall and is said to be preparing to shut factories manufacturing bulbs and moving towards LED lights.

(Editor) “Sorry to see all our U.S. jobs going to China who now makes the very bulbs we are using.”

LED Bulbs is the future

With the incandescent bulbs not able to survive the Darwinian struggle for existence and the CFL plagued with concerns of mercury contamination, flickering lights, safe recycling and incompatibility with dimmer circuits – LED lamps are undoubtedly the future of lighting.

The Incandescent Bulb – Inefficient and Unsafe

A 10% performance ceiling – The incandescent bulb uses less than 10 pct of the electrical energy it uses to generate light and wastes the remaining 90%as heat! A 100W incandescent bulb has a radiant efficiency of less than 3%and its hypothetical upper region of efficiency (that is practically unattainable) is realized at 10 pct. What this means is that a 100 watt bulb throws away close to 95 watts in heating the room and then the air conditioning element has to pump this heat out!

Short being span – The high temperature at which the light bulb works at 3170 deg F means that that filament expires quickly requiring frequent replacement of fixtures. A cluster of solid state Light Emitting Diode based lights with a being span of 30,000 hours or more for each distinct lamp, is the clear choice with the risk of dangerous failure reduced to around 0.

Burn risk – As anyone with a small child will show the hot incandescent bulb is a dangerous thing to have around a kid. Not only can a bulb break and cause glass shards on the floor it can also burn you.

Given that a 6 watt LED bulb can easily produce as much light as a fifty watt incandescent light bulb means that a shift away from the incandescent light will save 88%of lighting expenses, several tons of mercury emissions from coal fired electrical plants, and millions of tons of carbon emissions.

Whether you choose to be an first adopter of the technology of the future or desire to contribute to the fight against additional carbon emissions and resulting global warming or you want to child proof your home or save money on your utility bill or wish simply for a safe yet high return investment decision, LED lighting fit the bill.

(Editor) ” Unfortunately LED’s now cost about 700% more than incandescent so cost savings are virtually nil. As far as life span is concerned the technology has been in place for decades to produce an incandescent that will last 20 years or more but that would put the manufacturers out of business if everyone only bought lights bulbs twice in their lives. Sorry Charley but my choice for light will be the incandescent for the forseeable future.”